Guided by Voices

Being a Robert Pollard fanatic must feel like a full-time job. Reading and sending Postal Blowfish messages, loading nuggets of the Guided by Voices frontman's off-the-cuff pop onto iPods, tracking down and acquiring related limited-edition singles and albums, plotting best-of tapes, trading bootlegs, buying additional shelving -- not to mention actually listening to all of those dang songs Pollard keeps writing and releasing. It's exhausting just thinking about it. When GBV goes on tour, show reviews and set lists must be perused, recording equipment dusted off and tested, beer money saved. There's no time left for anyone to consider whether today, four years since Pollard took his songwriting to its commercial zenith, all of this hustle and bustle is still worth anyone's effort and attention.